Vanishing Point: Tale of The Undercity
An extract from "The Canterlot Undercity" by archaeologist Shining Gem
"Unknown to most of Canterlot's residents today, the Canterlot Undercity existed centuries before the city itself. Theorised to have been dug by Diamond Dogs, the tunnels were abandoned by the time Nightmare Moon was banished for her crimes. Once Canterlot was constructed, few made use of the expansive tunnels below, bar the few who had made homes and hideaways deep below.
Since the discovery of the volcanic properties of Canterlot's mountain, much of the Undercity now houses the Canterlot Steamworks, which provides power and arcane machinery to the overcity and Equestria itself. Yet even today, in the golden age of technology, a lot of the Undercity is still a mystery to us. Miles upon miles of tunnels still go unexplored, and many secrets lie forgotten.
What lies down there? I can offer no more than theories. I am but a simple archeologist. I shall leave that question for you all to ponder."
---
The sound of a piercing whistle echoed accross the city, signalling a new day for the many workers of the great Steamworks of Canterlot. Cog groaned and rolled over onto his side, pushing himself off his bed and onto his hooves. He looked at the clock on the wall of his attic room and groaned again. It was never fun to be up so early. Cog worked in the Steamworks, maintaining pipes and the many machines that now kept Canterlot alive. It was not fun work, especially for a pegasus, but somepony had to do it.
He stumbled over to his dresser, and began to put on his uniform. He wore a padded, plain blue jumpsuit, modified slightly to accomodate his wings. The designer had obviously never expected a pegasus to work in the Steamworks, and it was true that few pegasi did work in the cramped confines of the Undercity tunnels.
He picked up a pair of goggles from atop the dresser and placed them on top of his head, their brass frames resting against his forehead and the leather strap, adjusted perfectly for him, slipped around his head to hold them in place. He turned to look into the chipped mirror, his dark purple eyes staring back at him. His coat and mane were almost black, but one could just about see a dark green tinge to his mane, and is coat was a very dark grey.
The circular window, covered in grime, just about let in enough light to see by. Through it, Cog could make out the street below, already thronging with ponies makng their way to work, despite the early hour. Cog was just about to follow their example when there was a quick knock at his door.
"Are you awake yet, Cog?" Came a mare's muffled voice from the other side of the door. "Come on, you know how embarassing it is when we're late. Plus, if we're late one more time, our pay gets docked. You heard what Mister Wrench said." Cog rolled his eyes and opened the door.
"Peaceful, I can get myself up in the mornings, you know. Despite what you may think." Cog deadpanned. In the doorframe before him stood a white unicorn with an ice blue mane, her eyes matched her mane, and were currently harboring an unamused look. Peaceful Treasure had been Cog's room mate since he arrived in Canterlot, and worked in the same maintenance group as he did.
"Oh, good to know you're a big boy now." She said with a small smile. Cog rolled his eyes with a smile of his own and gently punched her in the shoulder.
"Come on, lets get going then." Wrench might be laid-back compaired to most Steamworks task-masters, but he did not like ponies in his group being late.
---
They were late.
Mister Wrench was waiting for them at the Undercity entrance they used with a stern expression on his face. He glared down at the two, then glanced at the watch on his foreleg. Cog looked at his hooves and awkwardly shuffled around. Finally, when it seemed like ths silence would never end, Wrench spoke.
"Cog. Peaceful." he said, looking at each of them in turn. "I hope there is a damned good reason for your tardiness, or else I'm prepared to buck you both to the Luna damned Foundry right this instant!"
"Well I... Uh..." Cog stammered. "Y-you see... we were... and then..."
"You know what, I don't want to hear it." Wrench said tiredly, wiping his brow with a hoof. "Both of you, get your flanks down there, get your equipment and get to work." He told them. They were only too happy to comply. "Oh, and both of your pays are docked by ten bits. Don't say I didn't warn you." he called after them.
Cog and Peaceful made their way through the tunnels that led to the equipment room. Peaceful was staring at Cog, who just sighed and met her gaze.
"Go on, say it. I know you want to." Cog said to her.
"Say what? I have no idea what you mean!" She replied with an innocent expression. "Oh, did you want me to say how irresponsible you are, how you always get the both of us in shit, and how I should chuck you into a furnace and make it look like an accident? Would I say such a thing?" she said with wide eyes and an innocent smile.
"Yes. You would. At least twice a week." Cog said in a flat tone.
"Fair point."
They continued walking, the ever present orchestra of work and machinery that was always heard down in the Steamworks began to get louder as they neared their destination, reaching a climax as they passed into a great cavern. Fifty feet below them, workers toiled away, making assorted components for arcane machines from raw resources brought in from all over Equestria. The cavern they were walking through was a moulding room. Workers filled great cast-iron moulds with molten metal piped directly from the Foundry deep below their hooves. The moulds were then left to cool by their hundreds in other caverns surrounding this one, all connected by the Undercity's maze of tunnels and ladders.
At last, they reached the equipment room, and the noise of the workers outside was muffled again. The room was lined with lockers, and set in the wall between two blocks of lockers was a window, behind which sat an old, tired looking earth pony with a faded red coat. Cog made his way over to the window and stood before it.
"Morning Quarter." Cog said with a wave of his hoof. Quarter looked up with a start, as though he was asleep, and looked at Cog through heavy lidded eyes.
"Oh, g'mornin' Cog. Ya seem t' be late again." he said in a hoarse voice. "The rest of ya group came an' left 'bout ten minutes back."
"Urgh, don't remind us. We just had a fun conversation with Wrench about it."
Quarter, which was not his real name, but everyone called him that due to him being the area's quartermaster, began to search around the shelving in his small room as he spoke. "I can imagine." he said. "Wrench ain't ever bin a fan of ponies bein' late for shift. Not ever."
Before Cog could reply, Peaceful interrupted. "As much fun as catching up is, I think we had better be moving on. Do you have any idea where our group was headed, Quarter?"
Quarter finished moving about the shelves and returned to the window with two tool belts slung across his back. He deposited them on a table in front of the window for Cog and Peaceful to retrieve. "I 'eard somethin' about faulty fluid pipes in Cavern 12, might wanna try in there."
"Thank you, Quarter. Now lets get going, Cog."
---
The walk to Cavern 12 was much the same as the walk from the surface to the equipment room. Most of the Undercity tunnels were incredibly similar, so much so that you would get lost easily if you did not know exactly where you were going. More than once, a careless new worker had strayed from the populated tunnels and ended up lost for days. Most of them turned up eventually, with not much more than a few scratches and emotional trauma. The rest were either found as mangled corpses; attacked by the Undercity's less-than-civilized denizens, wildlife which fled into the tunnels to survive the destruction of their habitats to fuel industry; or were never seen again.
But Cog and Peaceful knew the routes around the Steamworks well, and they soon reached Cavern 12. Waiting outside the cavern was Mister Wrench and the rest of their group. They joined the group and stood next to a small yellow unicorn. Cog recalled that his name was Sunny.
"Hey, Sunny" Cog whispered "What have we missed?"
The buck glanced at him, then turned back to face Wrench. "Not much." he whispered "There's a problem with the metal distribution pipes that we need to fix before the metal hardens in the pipelines." he told Cog.
"Right, anything else?"
Before Sunny could reply, they were interrupted by somepony clearing their throat loudly. That somepony was Wrench.
"Ok, now that we're all here," he began, with a glance at Cog and Peaceful "let me go over the job. First, the molten metal distribution pipes in this cavern have stopped functioning correctly. I'm sure I don't have to tell you all that this is a moulding cavern which relies on these pipes to produce things." He told them with his usual stern look.
"Secondly, the Manager himself is going to be inspecting this cavern today."
Everypony stared at him in shock. The Manager? The Manager that ran the entire Canterlot Steamworks was coming here? The air seemed to get several degrees colder, despite the heat given off by the multitude of pipes. Every pony who worked in the Steamworks had heard stories of the Manager, though few have seen him in the flesh. It is said that he always puts his company first, no matter what. Even over Equine life.
"I'm sure you all understand how serious this is, and how quickly this job needs to be completed." Wrench told them all. "So please, all of you, try not to fuck up."
The group answered in the affirmative and moved off to go about their business in the cavern. Cog followed Sunny, while Peaceful left in another direction.
---
The metal transportation pipes easily dominated the room. Each pipe jutted out of the ground like some form of bare, misshaped tree, curving over directly above the moulding trays like a snake about to strike. Each time one deposited its load, it let out an almighty hiss, and glowing hot metal flowed out of its nozzle.
Except that none of the pipes in Cavern 12 were doing that. All lay dormant and non-functional, their workers, ponies who usually bustled around their pipe without stopping, sat looking bored and tired. Cog went over to the nearest dead pipe and tapped it with his hoof. It made a deep, hollow sound as he did so, similar to a gong.
"Hmm... there doesn't seem to be any blockages in the pipe itself." He said to Sunny. "Might be a problem with the central distribution pipeline. But before we check that out..." He looked at the pipe's controls. There was not much there, other than a pressure gague, a lever to open the massive valves inside the pipe, and a button to begin the flow of metal. Cog pulled the lever and watched the pressure gague. The gague showed that there was no pressure in the pipes. He pressed the button, and the pipe shook, groaning like a creature awoken from its slumber, but nothing more.
"I think it's definitely the pipeline." Sunny said. "Let's go."
They walked towards a small entrance set into the cavern wall. A dark stairway led downwards, into an area beneath the cavern. Suddenly, the small cavern was awash with light as Sunny lit up his horn.
Cog smiled. "Huh, Sunny. I guess the name fits." he said with a small laugh.
"Pfft, this is nothing." Sunny said with a smirk. "You should see me at parties."
The central pipeline stood in the center of the small cavern. It was truly massive, so big that it took almost a minute to walk around. It fed into the ceiling, where it split off into smaller pipes. Cog hesitantly laid his hoof against the enormous pipe, expecting it to be red hot from the molten metal inside it, but it was cold.
"What the... there's nothing in this pipe!" Cog said. "It's like all the metal has just been... diverted or something." He frowned and walked over to a panel in the wall. "I should be able to fix this, easy."
"Umm... Cog, I don't think that's a good idea... we should just report it to the others." Sunny said nervously.
"What, and let them take the credit for fixing it? No, I can definitely do this." He began fiddling with the controls, the huge central pipe groaning as he did so, the pressure inside rising. It began to glow and vibrate as molten metal once more flowed through the pipe. But the vibrations increased, and soon, small rocks were falling from the ceiling.
"Cog! What did you do!?" Sunny cried.
"I-I don't know! The pressure won't stop rising! I can't stop it!" Cog shouted back. The pipes feeding into the ceiling shook violentlty. The occasional "Ping!" of a rivet blowing could be heard as the pressure rose, uncontrolled, until finally "BWOOOSH!", a pipe blew. Molten metal fell downwards into the cavern from the small pipe, pooling and spreading onto the cavern floor with a hiss.
"Oh shit!" Both Sunny and Cog cried as more pipes exploded and the central pipeline glowed brightly. The strain was visible to see, the sheer amount of metal in the pipe was making it bulge and groan. Cog and Sunny ran back to the entrance, dodging drops of metal and falling rock. They dove through the door and tore up the stairway just as others began to come to investigate.
"GET OUT!" Sunny yelled. "IT'S GONNA BLOW!"
An almighty boom echoed up the staircase, followed by a sound akin to a dam breaking. Cog and Sunny ran and threw themselves through the door just as the staircase began to fill with the white hot metal.
Cog sighed and shook his head, thanking every deity he knew that he was alive. He got to his hooves, and was met my the furious face of Mister Wrench.
"Maybe I spoke too soon..." he murmured under his breath.
The cavern was deathly silent, everypony was watching Wrench, who was shaking with rage and had turned a dark shade of red.
"HAVE YOU ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'VE DONE!?" Wrench yelled. "YOU HAVE SINGLE-HOOFEDLY DESTROYED THIS CAVERN! I OUGHT TO-"
His rant was interrupted by a sound coming from beyond a large wooden door set into the wall on the far side of the cavern. "Clank-Tsssst" the sound went, over and over, getting ever closer to the door. Suddenly, the door banged open.
The Manager had arrived.
---
A massive Earth pony emerged from the tunnel behind the door. It soon became clear that he had been the source of the sound. His front leg had been replaced by a metal contraption, which looked like a skeletal leg, that was connected to his shoulder. His coat was a dark red, and his mane dark grey, almost black.
He entered the room, ducking slightly to avoid the doorframe, and looked around. He gave a small nod and stepped aside, standing to attention as a small blue unicorn entered behind him. The newcomer wore a suit and top hat, which hid his mane, and looked around the cavern with disdain.
Cog's eyes were still on the huge Earth pony. There was no way the small unicorn could be The Manager, no way at all. He stood waiting for the Earth pony to speak, until the unicorn cleared his throat, making Cog jump slightly.
"What is going on in here?" The unicorn spoke in a calm, posh sounding accent, his expression one of somepony who had many other places to be, all more important than where he currently was. His grey eyes observed the cavern, all the workers staring and deathly silent. His eyes finally came to rest on Wrench, who was still shaking with rage. "Well? Explain."
Cog shook with terror. The unicorn, who he now knew was The Manager, gave off an aura of power and intimidation that made Cog want to cower away, which he did. At some point, Peaceful had crept next to him, and now had a comforting hoof on his shoulder.
Wrench spluttered "Sir... I-I..." he stammered, his face red and a look of fear barely hidden in his eyes. "My workers... they-they tried to fix this place, but fucked up, sir!" he said. "It wasn't my fault!"
"Wrench, Wrench, Wrench..." The Manager said, shaking his head slowly. "You are the overseer here. It is your job to help to make sure my Steamworks keeps running like the well oiled machine it is." he said, slightly patronizingly. "But, I am feeling generous." he said with a nod.
The Manager turned to the workers. "Whoever caused this shall come forward. Now." The Manager told them, his grey eyes scanning the crowd of ponies in front of him. "Or else all shall be punished.
Cog shook with absolute terror. Punishment in the Steamworks consisted of being dragged down to the Foundry, a hellish place ponies only told horror stories of. It is said that demons guard the place, rarely seen, and only a ticking sound announced when they neared. Others told of a great pit full of white hot lava, like the heart of the planet itself. One thing for certain, nobody ever left the Foundry. It was a death sentence.
Cog whimpered softly, sidling closer to Peaceful. The Manager's grey eyes locked on him and narrowed slightly. He opened his mouth to speak, when suddenly, a voice emerged from the crowd.
"I did it."
The crowd parted, and one pony was left in the middle, a small, yellow unicorn.
"Sunny..." Cog whispered. Sunny slowly walked up to the raised section The Manager and his guard were stood on, all the while keeping eye contact with The Manager himself. You could see the fear in his face, but determination masked it well, and he continued his walk towards The Manager.
"I'm the one that destroyed the pipes." Sunny said. "I thought I could fix it myself, but it went out of my control, and exploded. Nobody else here has any blame but myself." He said with a glance back at the gathered workers. He caught Cog's terrified gaze, and nodded slightly.
A slow clapping of somepony's hooves echoed around the cavern, and all eyes were on The Manager again. "Oh, how noble of you." he said with a smirk. "But I am afraid I cannot have unreliable workers working in my Steamworks."
He waved a hoof at the Earth pony. "Gasket, please deal with this sad excuse for a worker and drag him to the Foundry."
Quick as a flash, Gasket was upon him and Sunny was on the floor, unconscious. A small pool of blood forming from a nasty gash in his head where the massive beast of a pony had struck him. Gasket picked Sunny up and roughly threw him onto his back, and began to walk back through the tunnel.
The Manager turned to leave. "As for the rest of you," he said with a glance back at the silent workers "get this place cleaned up. I expect it to be operational by the end of the month."
The Manager left. Cog fell to his knees, tears running down his face over what had just happened.
Peaceful put a leg around him. "Come on, Cog." She said soothingly "It will all be fine."
Cog couldn't believe her.
